Comcast and NBCUniversal are making their new streaming service, Peacock, the exclusive U.S. home for UK Premier League soccer.
Peacock is set to launch nationally July 15 in both limited free-to-consumer AVOD and premium $5-a-month subscription iterations—the pay version gets the soccer, starting in September with the anticipated start of the Premier League season. However, on the July 15 launch date, Peacock will stream four Premier matches to both its free and paid tiers: Manchester City v. Bournemouth; Burnley v. Wolverhampton; Newcastle v. Tottenham; and Arsenal v. Liverpool.
Also today, ViacomCBS and UEFA, the governing body of European football, today announced the details of a multi-platform agreement for CBS All Access and CBS Sports to serve as the exclusive English-language home in the U.S. of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League through 2024, beginning in August.
Peacock First
In all, Peacock will feature more than 175 matches in the 2020-21 season. Of the more than 1,500 hours of content that’s set to be streamed, there will be full-event replaces for all 380 matches during the season, available on demand after 9 p.m. EST.
Peacock soft-launched on Comcast X1 and Xfinity Flex video platforms back in April. And it has already streamed the the Bournemouth-Crystal Palace Premier League match on June 20.
Comcast already had the rights through its ownership of Sky—it’s merely shifting the content from its NBC Sports Gold’s Premier League Pass subscription service, which will be shuttered.
NBC and NBCSN will continue to present extensive Premier League live match coverage, as well as pre- and post-match shows and additional shoulder programming. Premier League games on NBC and NBCSN will be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs.
Upcoming live sports content on Peacock will include a new primetime Sunday NFL Wild Card playoff game in Janaury, Olympics and Paralympics coverage, U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and Ryder Cup golf, plus the recently announced Peacock original NASCAR-themed documentary Lost Speedways, hosted by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as well as docu series In Deep with Ryan Lochte.
Meanwhile, ViacomCBS’s direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, CBS All Access, will stream every UEFA club competition match live each season, featuring all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches, along with the UEFA Super Cup, and from 2021-2022 all UEFA Europa Conference League matches. CBS will air select marquee matches on the CBS Television Network and CBS Sports Network over the length of the deal, featuring the most UEFA matches ever on U.S. broadcast television.
